Mecklenburgian State Theater Schwerin

Remarkable facts out of the history of the Schwerin Theatre and the history of music.

The history of Schwerin as a theatre and music town begins, apart from predecessors for the middle ages, with the founding title of the Mecklenburgian Court orchestra of Schwerin in the year 1563, more precisely with the nomination of David Koeler as the Conductor of the court orchestra by Duke Johann Albrecht.
This Mecklenburgian Court orchestra, built in its place, is therefore the second oldest German orchestra.
There is evidence that 100 years later, court musicians collaborated at ‘comedies’. A further 100 years later, Schwerin enters supra-regional importance in the theatre and music history. Conrad Ekhof, a friend and colleague of Lessing, founded the first German Academy of Drama, thereby making Schwerin one of the birthplaces, besides Hamburg, of German national Theatre. In Schwerin the most famous stage player troupe, the ‘Schoenemannsche Gesellschaft’ performs regularly. Ekhof, the ‘Father of German Drama’ was a member of this ‘Schoenemann Society’. In 1782, the Court orchestra counts among the 20 best in German ones, yet located in Ludwigslust for 70 years. The ‘Real Schwerin Drama History’ begins in 1836 at the ‘House of the Stage’ newly built by Georg Adolph Demmler.

As from the middle of the 19^th Century, Schwerin becomes the centre of German drama and musical culture. The "Tannenhaeuser" is performed in 1852 as the first of Wagner’s Operas on the Schwerin program, followed by "Hollaender" and "Lohengrin". In 1855 the Schwerin-born the composer Friedrich von Flotow is the place theatre curator for seven years.
Thanks to his efforts, Georg Alois Schmitt comes to Schwerin, who had in his long serving time as a director of the court orchestra a decisive influence on the development of Schwerin as a music town and who, amongst others, introduced the concert season-ticket which still exist today.
In 1873, Richard Wagner attends one of the concerts, playing the ‘Flying Dutchman’. In 1878, the ‘Walkyrie’ is staged, shortly after being staged in Bayreuth. Auditors come, sometimes by special train, from Wismar, Rostock, Guestrow, Luebeck, Hamburg and Berlin.

Famous soloists and conductors invited to perform during that period were Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, 1868 Anton Rubinstein, Camille Saint-Saens and Johannes Brahms.
Drama was also very much talked about. Famous actors and actresses contributed as guest performers to classic stage plays.
In 1886 the ducal palace theatre opened. The following two decades saw the performance of around 1300 operas.
From 1897 to 1901 Hermann Zumpe, who later became the head of the Munich Opera, leads the Schwerin Orchestra to its rankings as one of the first among German orchestras.
In 1918, the palace theatre becomes State theatre. In 1926, the Mecklenburg State Theatre becomes the Lower German Stage Niederdeutsche Buehne (as form 1946, the "Fritz-Reuter-Buehne") at the same time the State theatre
At the same time it is affiliated to the State Theatre recognised as a working stage.
After 1945, in the first years following the Second World War, Schwerin profits from the fact that its theatre suffered no damage and is immediately able to hold performances. Here, famous actors find an interim homestead.
In the dialectic debate between the system dissenting and the system approving function of the Theatre, GDR-times see the emergence of a particularly productive relationship between the stage and the public.

With the staging of "Faust I and II", a performance by Christoph Schroth lasting nearly 6 hours, the artist ensemble achieved 106 sold-out productions.
The Schwerin Theatre turned to a pilgrimage place for theatre enthusiasts from the whole of Germany. With the stage production "Antike-Entdeckungen", ensuing two years after "Faust", Schwerin is allowed — which was, under GDR-conditions, a remarkable exception — to perform in Nancy, Vienna, Athens, Delphi and in several West-German towns.

The General music directors Rudolf Neuhaus, Kurt Masur, Heinz Fricke, Klaus Tennstedt, and Hartmut Haenchen lead the musical fate of the house after 1945, all of them later made a name for themselves in the musical world.
All together, the Mecklenburg State Theatre proves, with the attractivity of the house and high artistic performances to be a cultural centre of the Territory of Mecklenburg-West-Pomerania and an important tourist attraction.

Redaction: Horst Schwarz-Linek